McLaren vs. Ferrari

The wizards of Woking are well on track, building a supercar to rival the Italians.

By
Matt DeLorenzo, Editor-in-Chief

Jun 22, 2009

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In the rarefied world of Grand Prix racing, Ron Dennis has proven he's got the chops to rival when it comes to winning championships and having a taste for intrigue (witness Senna versus Prost and last year's Spygate episode). But, does he have the right stuff to tackle the Italian maestro's other legacy, building iconic road cars?

We'll get a chance to see now that Dennis has restructured the McLaren Group to create an independent unit called McLaren Automotive to build the upcoming rival, code named . It will be the first in what will become a range of high-end sports cars. Now executive chairman of McLaren Automotive, Dennis turned over chief executive duties at McLaren Racing to team principal Martin Whitmarsh.

Unlike , who used his road car operation to fund his passion for racing, Dennis is using the brand recognition and the technical resources of his motorsports operation as a springboard to dive into the consumer car market. While McLaren has dipped its toe in these waters before (as far back as Bruce McLaren's M6GT street version of the legendary Can-Am racer, and later with the Gordon Murray/Peter Stevens-designed F1), the real impetus for full participation stems from the , which is slated to wrap up production at the end of 2009.

Another enabler is McLaren's stunning technology center located in the London suburb of Woking. While the town's name hardly trips off the tongue like Maranello, it soon could be synonymous with speed if Dennis is successful.

McLaren's mammoth facility houses a wind tunnel, two separate production areas for the Formula 1 racing and test teams, SLR final assembly and an electronics division that builds all the control units for the race and street cars. It will be the ideal showcase for the well-heeled to take delivery of their exclusive mounts.

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While Dennis is executive chairman of the new auto company, day-to-day operations are handled by Managing Director Antony Sheriff, an affable American who hails from New Jersey and spent much of his working life with Fiat and Alfa Romeo in Italy. "F1 has given us the brand credibility," Sheriff explains, adding that "our experience in building 100 cars in the F1 project and 2000 SLRs provides the foundation of what we are doing today. We have the real potential to have a broad impact with a range of products."

The P11 is set to make its debut in about a year's time as a 2011 model. Its design, which carries many cues from the F1, was pretty well set before noted designer Frank Stephenson came on board. Stephenson, who designed the Mini and worked for Ferrari before returning to England, is said to be working on an open-top version of the P11 as well as a successor to the F1 and perhaps even a fighter, though conversations with him are usually limited to the "if I told you, I'd have to kill you" variety.

It may seem daunting for McLaren to launch a high-end sports car in these difficult economic times — no less an authority than Gordon Murray himself told Autocar that the future for supercars is bleak. "In previous downturns, the main barrier to selling has been financial. This time it's different. There are going to be environmental, moral, and most of all, legal barriers as well."

Perhaps this is true. On the other hand, the auto industry survived the Great Depression, World War II, two major oil crises in the 1970s and now a meltdown of the global financial system. As long as world-class motor racing survives, as evidenced by the popularity of F1 and Le Mans, people will want a share of that technology in their street cars. Ferrari has indicated it will continue to meet these challenges with future products that reflect environmental sensibilities while delivering good performance. It appears now that McLaren is anxious to join the fray.

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